Beijing Olympics 2008: Day 15

One day before the closing ceremony…

1. Chong Wei is still our hero.

Lee Chong Wei won Malaysia’s Olympics first gold medal!! so we wished. He was overwhelmed by Lin Dan although he did give a good fight. Possibly he was under too much pressure.

Anyhow, he was still being greeted as a big hero back home in Malaysia. He received a cheque of RM300k and a monthly pension of RM3k and will be awarded a Datukship soon. Too bad he got somehow linked with some local political issues.

Click here and here for Chong Wei’s award. Click here and here to know how Chong Wei got ‘involved’ in politics.

2. Michael Phelps – the greatest Olympian in history

Michael Phelps really did it and won 8 gold medals in this single Olympics. Not only did he manage to make his country proud, he also managed to get a super large fan base on facebook with a whopping 1,341,859 fans!

Click here to check out and click here for Phelp’s website.

Liu Xiang

3. Liu Xiang pulled out of Olympics

Perhaps one of the most shocking news to the Chinese in Beijing and a disappointment to his fans who went all the way to watch his game. Liu Xiang was the defending champion in 110m hurdles and was in pain due to his Archilles tendon injury.

For full story, click here. For video of his exit, click here. For pictures, click here.

4. Another world record breaker

Usain Bolt, a Jamaican, won 3 gold medals with 3 new world records.

Interviews and how Bolt broke the records, click here, here and here.

5. Latest Olympics results

China is still leading with 48 gold medals, followed by US 31 golds, Russia 19 golds, UK 18 & Germany 15. Seems like China is definitely winning this summer Olympics.

As by 19 August, 36 world records and 74 Olympics records have been broken.

For full news, click here. For detail results, click here.

6. The Closing Ceremony & the Handover Party

Will involve 7000 performers and is expected to be as spectacular as the opening ceremony 2 weeks ago. While the opening focused on 1000 years of Chinese history, the closing will showcase more of the diversity and colours of modern China. Inclusive is an 8-minute slot from London, the next Olympics host in 2012. Famous footballer, David Beckham and singers Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page has confirmed to perform.

28 giant TV screens has been placed around UK to televise the event live, including Glasgow.

Full story click here and here.

7. London 2012

While the current Olympics is coming to an end, London is briskly preparing for its turn, which received as much as 9.3billion pounds budget. The new Olympic Park will be in east London, at Lower Lea Valley.

Olympics Stadium London 2012

Visit London 2012 Official Website here.

Click here to follow up on London 2012, click here pictures of the Olympics venue from the sky.

Click here, here and here for Olympics 2012 budget news. To see the new stadium design, click here.

8. Japan to bid for Olympics 2016.

The campaign kicked off in Beijing on August 4 with the theme “Uniting Our Worlds”.

Beijing Olympics 2008 closing ceremony can be watched live on BBC here on Sunday (24 August) noon at this link.

Beijing Olympics 2008: Day 7

Day 7 of Beijing Olympics 2008…Here are some highlights of what have happened the past week during the Olympics…especially for those who are interested but missed the news…

HOT topics on the current Olympics:

1. Stunning Opening Ceremony

Many describe it as a spectacular opening for the four-yearly Games.

If you have missed it, click here and here.

2. Girl Miming in Opening Ceremony

Miaoke (right) & Pei Yi (left)

If you watched the opening ceremony you will remember a girl in red who sang ‘Ode to the Motherland’ and became famous overnight. Yeah…she was miming and the voice actually belonged to another girl behind the stage. It was a last minute decision and the Committee defended their decision to produce a perfect opening ceremony as the girl on the stage was said to look prettier than the actual singer.

Full story & interview click here and here. Video clip on the singing click here.

3. Digitally enhanced Firework

If you remember seeing a 29 firework footsteps ‘processing’ from TiananMen Square to the Bird’s Nest stadium from TV. Yeah…that was pre-shot and digitally enhanced by computer, although the firework actually did happen that night. The reason given by the Committee was that they cant risk a helicopter pilot following the footsteps above the sky. So the giant footsteps u saw on tv was actually digitally created.

Full Story click here. Video of the footsteps firework shot by audience click here.

4. Promises made by China to host Olympics 2008

China is being accused for not fulfilling its promises to improve on human rights and media freedom when it bid for the Games. The country defended itself against the accusations.

Full story click here.

Michael Phelps

5. One of the greatest Olympians in History

MIchael Phelps, an American swimmer, broke 6 world records in this Olympics, won 6 golds, making a total of 11 gold medals won in Olympics by him. He wants to break Mark Spitz’s (another American swimmer) 36-year-old record of 7 gold medals in a single Olympics. He has 2 more swims tomorrow (16 August -100m Butterfly & 4x 100m Medley relay).

The funny thing is his records create such a great psychological impact on other swimmers that many believe his Speedo swimsuit helped to boost his performance and some even broke their contracts with their own swimsuit sponsor to get a Speedo one. Now some swimsuit companies like TYR wants to sue Speedo for false advertising and conducting monopoly.

Full story click here. For Phelp’s unusual daily diet click here. Videos on Phelp’s all swimming finals this Olympics click here. To know how Speedo swimsuit creates wave in Olympics click here.

6. Olympics Latest Results

China is leading the tab with 26 gold medals, followed by US (14 gold medals) and Germany (8 gold medals).

Individual competition results and schedules, click here.

7. Malaysia is in badminton single’s finals!

Lee Chong Wei has made it to the finals and will compete against Lin Dan (China) on this Sunday 17 August 2008, 20:48 (China time) or 13:48 (UK time).

For Lee Chong Wei’s Semi-finals results, click here. To watch Sunday’s Men’s singles finals LIVE this Sunday from UK, click here. For Lee’s fans, click here.

Note: Video link in BBC can ONLY be played in Internet Explorer.

Beijing Olympics 2008

Finally…Beijing Olympics 2008 is set to take off. Would really want to see how China pulls it off despite the pressure and the countless protests staged around the world because of its bad human rights records. Undeniably, it has been a long year for China, having to meet the expectations by bringing changes and at the same time, recover from several major natural catastrophe within the country.

Whatever it is, hope that the Beijing Olympics 2008 will be a peaceful and smooth one, for the benefits of all participating countries. Organising a big event like this is a pride for any country and all its citizens and China does deserve an opportunity to prove its worth being the host chosen officially by the International Olympics Committee.

Beijing Olympics Bird Nest 91000-seat Sports Stadium

Beijing Olympics 2008 Logo

For friends in Glasgow, there is an exhibition in Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum at Agryle Street titled “Beyond the Olympics: Symbolism in the 2008 Beijing Olympic designs” (free admission).

To watch Beijing Olympics 2008 Opening, stay tune at BBC ONE channel 12.45 – 16.45 on 8th August (UK).

Beijing 2008 Songs:

Beijing Welcomes You 北京欢迎你

by various artists

Stand Up 站起来

by Jackie Chan成龙， Stephanie Sun孙燕姿, Lee Hom王力宏, Han Hong韩红

It’s Here 在这里

by Jolin Tsai蔡依琳　& Huang Xiao Ming黄晓明

One World One Dream　世界的梦想

by Lee Hom王力宏

We Are Ready

by various artists

On The Same Blue Planet 同在蓝色星球上

by Joey Yung容祖儿，Nicholas Tse谢霆锋

Light the Passion, Share the Dream 点燃激情，传递梦想

by Lee Hom王力宏, Stephanie Sun孙燕姿, Wang Feng汪锋, Zhang Liang Ying张靓颖

Top of the World 万山之巅

by JJ Lin林俊杰, Fan Bing Bing范冰冰

Everyone Is No. 1

by Andy Lau 刘德华

Far Away 千山万水

by Jay Chou 周杰伦

You and Me 我和你 (Opening Ceremony Theme Song)

by Liu Huan 刘欢 & Sarah Brightman

Amazingly there are lots of Chinese singers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore. Malaysia? There you go…

Olimpik di Beijing (Malay version of Beijing Olympics Song)

by Micheal Wong 王光良, Penny Tai 戴佩妮, Gary Cao Ge 曹格, Daniel Lee 李吉汉, Maya Karin, Jaclyn Victor, Ning Baizura, David Arumugam (Allycats), Faizal Tahir, Pop Shuvit